About this course: For centuries we have collectively marveled at plant diversity and form—from Charles Darwin’s early fascination with stems and flowers to Seymour Krelborn’s distorted doting in Little Shop of Horrors. This course intends to present an intriguing and scientifically valid look at how plants themselves experience the world—from the colors they see to the sensations they feel. Highlighting the latest research in genetics and more, we will delve into the inner lives of plants and draw parallels with the human senses to reveal that we have much more in common with sunflowers and oak trees than we may realize. We’ll learn how plants know up from down, how they know when a neighbor has been infested by a group of hungry beetles, and whether they appreciate the music you’ve been playing for them or if they’re just deaf to the sounds around them. We’ll explore definitions of memory and consciousness as they relate to plants in asking whether we can say that plants might even be aware of their surroundings. This highly interdisciplinary course meshes historical studies with cutting edge modern research and will be relevant to all humans who seek their place in nature. This class has three main goals: 1. To introduce you to basic plant biology by exploring plant senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste, balance). 2. To introduce you to biological research and the scientific method. 3. To get the student to question life in general and what defines us as humans. Once you've taken this course, if you are interested in a more in-depth study of plants, check out my follow-up course, Fundamentals of Plant Biology.
Taught by: Professor Daniel Chamovitz, Ph.D., Dean, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences
Director, Manna Center for Plant Biosciences
| Level | Beginner |
| Commitment | 25 hours of videos, quizzes, and reading assignments |
| Language | English, Subtitles: Portuguese (Brazilian), French, Hebrew |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.
Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.
Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.
This is a wonderful course, and actually it's a 4.5 stars! The only missing 0.5 star is because of some technicalities, such as minor problems in transcripts and in language usage. The course is very informative, the professor is very knowledgeable, light, and gives out the information in a delightful way, making the learning process fun fun fun! I am already heading to his next course, Fundamentals of plant biology! If the course seems interesting to you, you have to take it, i am telling you, you do, you will enjoy every bit of it!
coherent and interesting
The instructor is enthusiastic, entertaining, and does an excellent job of structuring the lectures to include interesting experiments, big-picture overview, and enough detail to dig deeper. The quizzes supported my learning well, too. Would highly recommend this course.
Coursera provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online.
Very interesting course, although some of the concepts were beyond me and I couldn't get to grips with them! Very pleased to have passed though, so perseverance paid off. Never take plants for granted, they're amazing!